8GB SDHC card = monumentally slow

[egobreed]

So, I spent the weekend ripping virtually all my CDs on to my laptop to put them on an SDHC card for the car. Nothing fancy, just 128kbps mp3 files, so there was room for more or less 2,000 songs, given an actual formatted capacity of 7.39 GB.

On the card then, I have 69 'Band' folders, with about 200 'Album' folders divided up in to them. Some bands just have one album in them; some have more, up to about ten or so.

However - wow, is the RCD510 slooooow at processing them! When you first turn it on, it takes a good 2 to 3 minutes just to process the card and get the first song playing!

If you're listening to a track and hit 'Selection', the list of songs in that album comes up in a couple of seconds.

Hit the 'folder' button to see all albums by that band, and it's a little longer - maybe 4 or 5 seconds.

However - hit the 'folder' icon again to see the list of all 69 bands and it takes 32 FRICKIN' SECONDS!!

Now, in these modern times, that just feels like forever. The upside is that you're still listening to music while you're waiting for it, but it means you have to kind of 'plan ahead' and bring up the list a minute or so before you want to change tracks. Plus, if you choose the wrong Band by mistake, you have to wait the whole 32 seconds again....

Tonight, I might try a further subdivision, perhaps A to E, F to J, etc. and that *might* speed it up a little. But I'm torn; on the one hand, it's very, very cool not having to faff about with CDs and having everything there on the screen, but the epic slowness is just totally unacceptable!

[Dogzyboy]

You might be using a slow "Class" of card? I think the higher the class, the quicker the response time of the card.

[vee]

I bought a 32gig card - filled 16gigs of music - took 5min to get the tracks!
Ive since reduced the amount of music to about 5gigs and it works ok now - but ive wasted some cash on such a big card :-| :sad:

[egobreed]

The card claims to be Class 4, which obviously isn't cutting edge, but should surely be enough for playing mp3s - a format that has been in widespread use for at least 10 years now.

Annoyingly, the system needs the 2-3 minute start-up EVERY time I turn on the ignition, regardless of whether the card has been removed or altered. Why can't it just start playing the first track while it sorts itself out? And why does it take so long to load just the file names of 70-odd folders?

I'll probably stick with it, because it is very cool - once it starts working.

[rocknob]

I have a 32Gb Kingston SDHC. I think the problem is the folders. Mine was also slow so I copied all the music directly onto the root of the drive and it starts up within 5sec.

[raffoul232]

I own 2 16gb sand disk cards, and they are perfect only takes 30 seconds to load the songs. But the only thing that annoys me in the roc (sd and meda-in) is that you cant search a song, you simply have to keep on scrolling all the way down to find it, and that can be very tiering also dangerous if driving. In my friends s5 he just types the name of the song or any letter in the name and "voila" it shows up...

[ZephyR]

The SD card slot is a lot slower than the Media-in connection. Try using a 8GB USB stick instead - mines much quicker than my 4GB SD card.

[Max Bullit]

Had a problem like many others with slow initialisation of SD Card, but have found the solution....

Buy a USB card reader, stick the SD Card in that and connect into the USB port in the centre console armrest.

Hey presto, problem solved, cost me £2.50 from Amazon!!! " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For reference I had a 32GB SDHC card, it was only half full and took 5 minutes to initialise, once I had connected it through the USB card reader...4 seconds!!


Max Bullit

[egobreed]

Good call...I shall try that on my way home tonight.

[maisbitt]

I always use a Sandisk Cruzer USB stick and it takes seconds to initialise, except probably about 1 in 20 journeys, the stick is not recognised by the RDC510 for the whole journey.

[egobreed]

Tried hooking up a Belkin multi-card reader to the USB and used the same 8GB card, and it's brilliant. Only a couple of seconds to load.

That's a bit bizarre though, eh? Can anyone more computer-literate offer an explanation? It's obviously bad design or programming that loading times are so slow using the built-in SD card slot.

[jammyd]

It could be down to the software which is reading the SD card directly. the likelyhood is that it has a low ability to hand off the data.

As mentioned, different cards have different abilities. I have a 500Gb USB disk which reads no problem. down side is scrolling. Same issue with my ipod ( which is my main source of music)

[chrisyboyc]

Ive got a few 32GB SDHC class 6 Cards for sale and work fine in my car if anyone is interested £35 each Free delivery

[sicinius]

I doubt VW designed the SD interface (which I didn't know was there for two months!), the USB interface and it certainly didn't design the iPod interface. USB and iPod are well-mapped territory. SD is a nightmare and was regarded as 'untouchable' by DSLR camera manufacturers as even when it's quick, it really ain't. USB and iPod control is great. The SD slot is best used for transferring to the HD.

[skindemon]

I've just bought an SD card reader as Max Bullit suggested above, coupled with a Class 10 16gb SD card and works superbly. Very quick & no hassle. Happy days

[egobreed]

Finally saw sense and got a 16 GB hp USB stick - absolutely tiny, hides away in the armrest and starts within a second or two every time. That's better.

[sjobbe]

"SanDisk’s Extreme card is by far the fastest product, both for reads and writes. It also claims the crown on I/O performance"
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/com ... ,2574.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm about to buy the 30MB/s 8GB model "Extreme" card and test it when my car arrives. If anyone has any experience about thie please do tell...
PS. do not confuse the 20MB/s model with the 30MB/s model

EDIT: There are also the Kingston UltimateXX cards. Should be very fast (60MB/s read 35MB/s write) but also very expensive. Could someone test if they work in RNS/RCD?

[egobreed]

I use the 'Extreme' CompactFlash cards in my camera, and they're really good, but honestly, I'd avoid using SD cards altogether now. A USB stick is much faster. I got one of these:



for about £25.

[sjobbe]

You need the Media-In for that. It's an 250€ optional extra here.
My car is ordered with RNS315 that should be faster to operate and hopefully it handles SD:s also faster.